Q&A: Integrating Google Analytics and Adwords with Pardot

Integrating Google Analytics and Google Adwords to your Pardot account can often cause challenges, so below is a roundup of the most common questions we encounter.

Q1: How does the Pardot Google Analytics connector work and what are UTM Parameters?

Despite the name “connector”, the Google Analytics Connector does not actually push/pull data between Pardot and Google Analytics; rather, it enables Pardot to read UTM parameters.

UTM parameters are text snippets added to the end of URLs to enable marketers to track the performance of their campaigns. There are five UTM parameters, Source, Medium, Term, Content and Campaign, and these are associated to Pardot prospects on their first touch with a Pardot tracked asset.

In addition, Pardot can use UTM parameters to:

Populate the prospect’s Source field based on the utm_source parameter

If enabled, create a campaign and associate the prospect with that campaign using the utm_campaign parameter

If you want to start using UTM parameters to supplement your data in Pardot, we recommend using the Google Analytics URL builder here.

Q2: I’ve captured UTM parameters from my prospects. What can I do with this data in Pardot?

Reporting is the most common use case. Salesforce reports can be created using any Pardot fields, including UTM parameters. The granularity of reporting which can be achieved from UTM parameters enables better understanding of lead performance in terms of numbers of leads generated and also in terms of revenue.

Whilst knowing the success of one parameter in isolation can be useful, the best insights can be achieved through looking at UTM parameters in combination. For example, for prospects acquired through LinkedIn, which of those prospects were acquired by organic content versus paid LinkedIn advertising? Or which campaigns or content themes were the most successful across multiple channels? Alternatively, it’s also worth analysing which sources are the most successful at acquiring leads from specific campaigns.

Furthermore, UTMs can be the basis for segmentation. Automation rules or dynamic lists can be used to segment prospects based on the specific content or source of the prospect, who could then receive specific follow-ups based on the content or offers they originally found.

Finally, because UTM parameters sync to Salesforce, capturing this information gives salespeople extra insights into what type of content first attracted that prospect.

Q3: I’m investing in Google Adwords. How do I integrate that into Pardot?

The Google Adwords connector enables prospects who click on Google Adwords paid ads to be tracked. Using cost data from Adwords and opportunity data from Salesforce, it is possible to see how much revenue is generated with Google paid search on an account, campaign, ad group or keyword level.

Find your Adwords tracking template by clicking the cog next to the Adwords connector and select “Tracking Template”

Add this Pardot tracking template in the Shared Library > URL options in the Adwords interface.

Optional: By default, all new prospects sourced from Google Adwords campaigns will be associated to a generic Google Adwords campaign. Prospects coming from specific Adwords campaigns can be associated to specific Pardot campaigns in Marketing > Search Marketing > Paid Search > Gear icon next to each Adwords campaign.

When customers link their Analytics and Adwords account together using Google’s auto-tagging, this adds a Google Click ID to the generated URLs (gclid). This auto-tagging renders UTM parameters unreadable and this can cause problems in Pardot.

The solution to this is to disable auto-tagging and instead use UTMs using Google’sValueTrack options appended to the end of the Pardot Adwords tracking template. This means that the same information is passed to Google Analytics as the gclid provides, but Pardot can also read UTM parameters. This is an advanced topic and may require further assistance if you are not familiar with Google ValueTrack.

I hope this Q&A has helped you progress with campaign reporting in Pardot, but if you have any more questions around Google Adwords and Analytics or need help with implementing any of the points above, please contact us.